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The
Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) on Thursday called for
a careful examination of existing R&D infrastructure, including
facilities such as the Albany NanoTech Complex in New York and
other government and research spaces.
In addition to tens of billions of dollars for building back
U.S. chip manufacturing capacity, the Chips and Science act
carved out $2 billion for the Defense Department and $11 billion
for the Commerce Department to allocate for chip R&D.
"In the semiconductor industry, that kind of money, especially
when we're talking about efforts towards scale up, will be spent
very, very quickly. So it's really important that an
understanding of where the existing infrastructure is provided,
so that it can be leveraged," said Eric Breckenfeld, director of
technology policy at SIA, which released a report with Boston
Consulting Group suggesting how the funding could be spent.
Breckenfeld said the Defense Department funding would mainly go
to existing programs, while the Commerce Department funding will
be allocated through two new government entities - the National
Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) and the National Advanced
Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP).
The goal of the Chips Act R&D funding would be to fill a gap in
the so-called "valley of death" between early stage research and
mature commercial technologies, which are both well funded in
the U.S., he said.
While the Commerce Department hasn't given a detailed road map
of how the NSTC and NAPMP would be governed, Breckenfeld said
there will likely be several technology hubs in different
regions specializing in different parts of semiconductor
technologies, such as materials or packaging.
Regional competition was emerging to secure those hubs, he
added.
(Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee; editing by Richard Pullin)
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